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5 Decades Later: Has The D.B. Cooper Skyjacking Finally Been Solved By A Found Parachute?

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The D.B. Cooper case, the only unsolved skyjacking in U.S. history, has been thrust back into the global spotlight with a monumental, highly-credible development in late 2024. After more than 53 years of intense speculation, countless books, and a cold trail that stumped the FBI, the legendary mystery may finally be cracked by the children of a long-time prime suspect, Richard Floyd McCoy II, who claim to have found a crucial piece of evidence: his parachute.

The discovery, reported in November 2024, has reignited the decades-old investigation, suggesting that the man who vanished into the night sky with $200,000 in ransom money from Northwest Orient Flight 305 was not a phantom, but an individual with a documented history of similar crimes. The new evidence, allegedly a parachute belonging to McCoy, is now the focus of forensic efforts, including attempts to extract DNA, which could definitively close the file on this infamous American crime.

The Prime Suspect: Richard Floyd McCoy II Biography

Richard Floyd McCoy II has been a prominent figure in the D.B. Cooper lore for decades, largely due to the striking similarities between the Cooper skyjacking and a crime McCoy committed just five months later. His background as a military veteran and a known thrill-seeker made him an ideal candidate for the daring November 1971 heist.

  • Full Name: Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. (often referred to as Richard Floyd McCoy II)
  • Born: December 7, 1942, in Kinston, North Carolina.
  • Military Background: Served in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret during the Vietnam War, where he was a helicopter pilot. This experience provided him with the necessary parachuting and survival skills.
  • Civilian Life: After his military service, McCoy worked as a Utah National Guard warrant officer and was a Mormon Sunday school teacher, presenting a starkly contrasting public image to that of a criminal hijacker.
  • The 1972 Skyjacking: On April 7, 1972, McCoy successfully hijacked a United Airlines Flight, demanding $500,000, and parachuted out over Provo, Utah. He was later arrested and convicted for this crime.
  • Death: McCoy escaped from Lewisburg Penitentiary in 1974. He was killed in a shootout with FBI agents in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on November 9, 1974.

The New 2024 Evidence: The Parachute and DNA

The case, which the FBI officially suspended in 2016, has seen a dramatic resurgence in late 2024 with the claims made by Richard Floyd McCoy II’s children.

The Discovery and Its Significance

The core of the new claim revolves around a parachute allegedly stored for decades by McCoy’s deceased mother. The siblings, who have chosen to remain anonymous in some reports, claim the parachute was part of a stash of their father's belongings.

The significance of this find is immense. It provides a tangible, physical link to the man who was already the subject of the 1991 book, D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy, written by former FBI agents Bernie Rhodes and Russell Calame.

The discovery has prompted forensic scientists to begin testing the parachute for any biological material, such as hair or skin cells, that could yield a DNA profile. If a viable DNA sample is recovered and matches a sample the FBI may have retained from the Northwest Orient Flight 305 hijacking—perhaps from a tie clip, cigarette butts, or the four parachutes left behind—the half-century-old mystery would be solved.

The FBI has long maintained that while McCoy was a strong suspect, the evidence did not definitively prove he was Cooper. However, the bureau did track down and arrest McCoy for his similar 1972 hijacking, which was almost a carbon copy of the Cooper crime.

Why Richard Floyd McCoy II Has Always Been a Top Suspect

Even before the 2024 parachute claim, McCoy was considered the most likely candidate by many investigators and amateur sleuths. The parallels between the two skyjacking incidents are difficult to dismiss, fueling the "D.B. Cooper is Richard McCoy" theory for decades.

The Overwhelming Coincidences

  • Parachuting Expertise: McCoy, a former Green Beret, was an expert parachutist, which is a skill essential for the successful execution of the D.B. Cooper jump.
  • Method of Operation: Both hijackers demanded ransom money and parachutes, and both jumped from the plane's aft (rear) stairway. McCoy’s 1972 hijacking was nearly identical in its execution to the 1971 Cooper case.
  • Timing: The D.B. Cooper skyjacking occurred on November 24, 1971. McCoy's hijacking occurred just four months later in April 1972. It is highly plausible that the success of the first crime (Cooper’s) inspired the second (McCoy’s).
  • Physical Description: McCoy generally matched the composite sketch and the physical description provided by the flight attendant, Tina Mucklow, and other witnesses on the Boeing 727.

Despite the strong circumstantial evidence, the FBI officially stated that there was a lack of definitive evidence linking the two cases. The most significant piece of counter-evidence was McCoy's alibi, which claimed he was having Thanksgiving dinner in Utah, a day after the skyjacking in Washington/Oregon. However, the new 2024 evidence suggests that this alibi may have been manufactured or simply inaccurate.

The D.B. Cooper Legacy and Other Key Entities

The D.B. Cooper case, which began on a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington, remains the only unsolved skyjacking in modern U.S. history, forever changing air travel security.

Key Facts and Entities Surrounding the Heist

The actual alias used by the hijacker was "Dan Cooper," but a media error cemented the name "D.B. Cooper" in popular culture.

  • The Jump: Cooper parachuted from the rear airstair of the Boeing 727 over the rugged terrain near Ariel, Washington, with the $200,000 ransom money.
  • The Money: In 1980, a young boy named Brian Ingram found $5,800 of the ransom money in bundles of twenty-dollar bills on a sandbar known as Tena Bar along the Columbia River. This remains the only confirmed physical evidence of Cooper's fate until the 2024 parachute discovery.
  • The FBI Investigation: Dubbed "NORJAK," the FBI's investigation involved hundreds of agents and spanned over four decades, processing hundreds of suspects and leads before being suspended in 2016.
  • Other Suspects: While McCoy is the focus of the latest news, other notable suspects have included Robert Rackstraw (a former Army pilot), Kenneth Christiansen (a former Northwest Orient flight purser), and even a female suspect, Barbara Dayton, who confessed to the crime.

The 2024 claim linking the parachute to Richard Floyd McCoy II provides the most compelling, fresh lead in decades. If the forensic analysis confirms a DNA match to the evidence from the 1971 skyjacking, the world's most famous cold case will finally be closed, confirming a theory that has been debated for over 50 years. The final resolution of the D.B. Cooper case now rests in the hands of forensic science.

5 Decades Later: Has the D.B. Cooper Skyjacking Finally Been Solved by a Found Parachute?
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